{"id":2908,"date":"2020-05-20T19:59:27","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T19:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/higher-food-costs-challenge-truckers-as-dining-options-still-restricted\/"},"modified":"2025-01-10T16:45:15","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T16:45:15","slug":"higher-food-costs-challenge-truckers-as-dining-options-still-restricted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/higher-food-costs-challenge-truckers-as-dining-options-still-restricted\/","title":{"rendered":"Higher Food Costs Challenge Truckers as Dining Options Still Restricted"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has changed the day-to-day lives of truck drivers while choking off the types of affordable and healthy meal options available to them on the road, according to a coalition of trucking groups.<\/p>\n

Prior to COVID-19, truck drivers had many more options to rest and eat, including cost efficient, full-menu or buffet-style establishments where they could pick and choose a variety meal options based on price, value and dietary needs.<\/p>\n

Understandably, sit-down service and buffet options have been closed with no foreseeable date of return. The constrained supply of restaurants has left drivers with less healthy and more expensive options, which have only escalated in price since the outbreak of COVID-19 \u2013 especially in the more remote areas many truckers find themselves while on the road.<\/p>\n

Food safety experts in recent media interviews are warning that buffet tables pose a major risk of spreading the virus because of how often people come into contact with the food and surfaces. While Restaurants Canada doesn\u2019t think buffet services are over indefinitely, it says the industry will have to evolve and innovate to make people feel safe.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Canada\u2019s frontline workers who are moving the North American economy are seeing their meal costs soar, with options extremely limited and with no relief in sight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m on the road every week across North America and the cost of food has not only skyrocketed, but the choices are extremely limited. It\u2019s mostly packaged fast food,\u201d said Johanne Couture of OOIDA, a long-haul truck driver with 26 years of experience \u00a0\u201cWith the closure of economically priced restaurants catering specifically to truck drivers, the cost of buying lunch or dinner has jumped by 50 to 80 percent \u2013 and that\u2019s not taking into account the higher currency exchange while in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

A coalition made up of the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA), OOIDA, Teamsters Canada, Women\u2019s Trucking Federation of Canada\u00a0and Private Motor Truck Council\u00a0of Canada\u00a0are asking the federal government to\u00a0increase the meal allowance<\/a>\u00a0for truck drivers, as well as the introduction of a payroll remittance program for trucking companies suffering from cash flow constraints.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis international coalition of trucking interests believes that our essential frontline drivers and carriers \u2013 who are working hard delivering crucial products so Canadians can stay safe \u2013 require specific relief measures from government,\u201d says CTA president Stephen Laskowski. \u201cOur essential workers deserve this support. CTA and the other members of the coalition will continue to make this issue front and centre in Ottawa.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has changed the day-to-day lives of truck drivers while choking off the types of affordable and healthy meal options available to them on the road, according…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1143,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1493,28,17],"tags":[1658,1494,1506,21,1669,1625,214,277,50],"class_list":["post-2908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-admin-tax","category-covid-19","category-labour-hr-driver-shortage","category-news-releases","tag-cash-flow","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-economy","tag-food-costs","tag-meal-allowance","tag-ooida","tag-payroll","tag-truck-drivers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}